After earning his right this weekend at a shot at the IBF light heavyweight title, Sullivan Barrera may need to wait before he gets a shot at Sergey Kovalev. Kathy Duva, head of Main Events, confirmed that she is trying to make the Adonis Stevenson fight, meaning Barrera mandatory could be on hold.
While Sergey Kovalev is fighting Jean Pascal again in January, Duva spoke about making the Stevenson fight a priority, as reported by Steve Kim of Boxing Scene: “We’re trying to make the Adonis Stevenson fight, that would be a unification. That would trump everything.
“So it’s hard to predict what the timeline would be but (Sullivan) is on the cue, he’s on line and he’ll fight. We’ll keep him busy, if not immediately with Sergey in June. That would be the option if we don’t do Stevenson.”
While agreeing a fight with Andre Ward for a fight to take place with Sergey Kovalev in 2016, it means that Barrera may be left waiting. Duva explained the mandatory situation, as Kovalev is the WBA, WBO and IBF champion.
Duva said – “When you have a unified champion the mandatories take turns. It’s a long established precedent. With the IBF, (Kovalev did his defense in July (vs Nadjib Mohemmedi), the next in line is the WBO and so I can’t predict what’s going to happen.”
Kovalev and Stevenson have both been vocal at making the fight and have traded in blows over social media.
Both men then met in the crowd when James DeGale faced Lucian Bute in Quebec City.
While both men have spoken about each other with hatred in the past on numerous occasions, and the known Kovalev t-shirt incident taking place, it seems the only way this rivalry can be ended is once both men face each other in the ring.
The WBC ordered talks between the pair earlier in the year although Kovalev and his team pulled out, stating Kovalev’s exclusive contract to HBO, which does not allow him to appear on any other network, as one of the reasons. Stevenson is contracted to Showtime.
Should a resolve be made, a potential super-fight could be in the making.
– Oun Abbas Hussain/@ouney86
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